Annual Report2017-2018

SOCIAL ENTREPRENUERSHIP AND INNOVATION LAB

Mission

Co-create an entrepreneurial and impact-focused culture of innovation with campus and community members, to spark new ways of tackling complex social problems.

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Since its launch one year ago, the Social Entrepreneurship and Innova-tion Lab (SEIL) has been providing a critically needed vehicle for the creative, ambitious and entrepre-neurial spirit of Washington Universi-ty students and local residents. SEIL serves as a needed incubator for the creation of new ideas that can advance positive social change as well as generate revenue. Additional-ly, working collaboratively with Olin Business School allows for the best minds in business to work side by side with leading social work, public health and social policy students and scholars at the Brown School. This partnership offers the campus and local community incredible opportu-nities to apply the principles of social entrepreneurship to advance social, economic and health equity.

I am grateful to Professor Cameron for her leadership and commitment to building racial equity and eco-nomic power within disadvantaged communities. The work of SEIL is a shining example of the Brown School’s dedication to equity and commitment to impact.

At Olin, we’re cultivating business leaders who have a strong analytical base complimented by a global outlook and an entrepreneurial world-view. We’re equipping leaders who understand the responsibility they hold to create a better world, to create social impact. As Olin’s vision has evolved and adapted with changing times, so have our student experiences. Innovative thinking has always served as the foundation for Olin’s diverse initiatives, and the Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Lab is one such collaborative venture. The Lab offers experiential learning opportunities to students from interdisciplinary backgrounds to enhance their entrepreneurial mindset. It’s an opportunity for Olin to share our entrepreneurial acumen with the St. Louis community and international actors. It serves as inno-vative thinking hub that offers our students new possibilities for research opportunities and social entrepreneurship ventures. I’m enthused by the accomplishments of the Lab and welcome you to engage with us and be part of this exciting venture.

I’m delighted to be building on many years of development of social entrepreneurship here at Washington University in St. Louis. The Brown School’s expertise in evidence based programming and impact assess-ment and Olin Business School’s focus on data driven decision making for change for good is coming together in the form of this accelerator. We have global and local challenges that require diverse skills sets and innovative perspectives. The Lab is equipping students and faculty alike to address these challenges with a focus on proven impact and innovative business models that offer sustainability. Working with local and global partners we can put our knowledge to work. I invite people from the campus and wider commu-nity to join us in this exciting initiative.

Dean Mark P. TaylorOlin Business School

Dean Mary McKayNeidorff Family and Centene Corporaton DeanBrown School

Heather CameronMichael B. Kaufman Professor of Practice Inaugural Academic Director SEIABrown School

Activity Overview

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Presented by the Management specialization and the Social Entrepreneurship specialization at the Brown School of Social Work

A conversation about how corporations can have a positive social and environmental impact through the Benefit Corporation governance model.

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Events

International Lab Research

Visiting Social Entreprenuers

Impact Accelerator

Courses Offered

Applied Learning

Staff

Next Steps

Pitch Day

Impact Investment Paper

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Recruitmentand Outreach

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Presented by the Management specialization and the Social Entrepreneurship specialization at the Brown School of Social Work

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B Lab: Profit with a Purpose 02.09.17

B Lab is a non-profit organization that serves a global movement to redefine success in business. Led by Head of Legal Policy Rick Alexander, 25 students discussed how corporations can have a positive impact through the Benefit Corporation governance model. The event was also held with cooperation from the School of Law. It was a great opportunity to see the intersections between governmental policy issues and social entrepreneurship.

Throughout the school year, the SEI Lab was instrumental in planning and hosting a range of activities that provided learning opportunities to the WashU and St. Louis communities. International social entrepreneurs were also invited to St. Louis to share their experiences with the wider community. These entrepreneurs taught in classes and met individually with students and faculty, sharing their experiences and challenges.

Participants in the Impact Investing Symposium

Dr. Joanna BreidenbachSocial Entreprenuer in Residence

Breidenbach is the founder of betterplace lab, where she researched the intersection of digital strategies and the social good.

Dan MeehanImpact Assessment Expert

Meehan is an impact assess-ment expert whose latest contract was with the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan. Dan led a team to a Google Impact prize in 2016.

Impacting Investing Symposium |04.06.2018

The Impact Investing Symposium was founded, organized, and implementedby MBA students through the Net Impact organization. Now in its second year, thesymposium brought together 180 attendees from the fields of finance, social justice, and government to discuss the impact investing potential in St. Louis. The SEI Lab was represented by Dr. Cameron. The SEI Lab also co-hosted breakout sessions with Justine PETERSEN (Galen Gandolfini) and Deaconness Foundation (Matt Oldani) to educate participants on the impact of CDFIs in St. Louis. Some of the key points focused on at the symposium include driving capital to impact investing opportunities, scaling impact and understanding the kinds of returns impact investors are looking for.

Artscope

Artscope participated in the accelerator to improve their strategic planning capabilities. The consulting team discovered that Artscope faced significant issues with capacity due to limited space, old processes, and a lack of marketing. The team then created a clear vision and steps for the organization to ensure efficient processes and capacity before driving forward growth. This work also included a marketing plan centered on the value proposition and mission of the organization.

Magnificent Creations

Magnificent Creations worked with the SEI Lab to identify their scope for operational efficiency. Throughout the semester, the consulting team focused on streamlining their ordering process as well as increasing their sales via website. The team also recommended ways to effectively communicate their impact to their targeted customer segments through social media and other channels.

Different Dynamics

Different Dynamics is a music program that enriches the lives of youth with special needs and their families through adaptive music programming founded by an employee of the St. Louis Symphony. They serve families with children ages 3-5 and youth ages 6-17, who have a special need and a strong love of music. This is done by offering private music lessons, group music classes, music therapy, and sensory-friendly events for children and youth with special needs. The lab helped discover their customer and define their service offering.

Corporate Social Responsibility Panel | 03.27.18

Larry Fink’s (CEO of Blackrock) letter to CEOs inspired the Beyond the Bottom Line Summit at Washington University. The letter demanded that CEOs demonstrate their companies’ social purpose. The panels brought together both experts in the field of social impact and executives from a variety of industries to showcase and compare the approaches companies use to achieve their sustainability or social impact goals. The CSR panel was open to all WashUL students, faculty, alumni, and St. Louis community members.

Dismantle, Design, Rebuild | 04.12.2018

Dismantle, Design, Rebuild was a three part series hosted by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, in collaboration with Design for America, with the vision of uniting the WashU changemaking community. Using design thinking, the series aimed at strengthening relationships between individuals across groups to create a resilient campus for an equitable future. The SEI Lab partnered with students and faculty from the Sam Fox School to provide technical support in rapid iteration for community problem solving.

Partnering Schools

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Collaborated with Social Innovation Research Centers

Partnering Schools at Washington University include the Olin Business School, the School of Engineering, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, and the School of Law

Consulting Projects in the Community

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Impact Accelerator: the Idea Phase

Nathan Vogt, BS ‘17 MBA ‘18

“I had experience with entrepreneurship through my classes, but I’ve never been a founder or leader of my own project. This was the first time I did my own customer research and networking, while learning about social entrepreneurship. I’ve been really challenged by others in the course and the program.”

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The Idea Phase is an e-learning experience via Google classroom supplemented with in-person workshops. It provides an opportunity for students and community members interested in social entrepreneurship to gain a variety of skills through lean startup exercises, discussions and breakout sessions. The free class is an open resource, available to anyone interested. Lessons include topics such as customer research, assumption testing, team building, competitive analysis, and more.

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Social Entreprenuership Impact Accelerator: Voices from the Program

Deletra Hudson Founder, Financial Wellness Institute of America

“I’m learning how to attract the proper client and target my market and teach my financial management academy on a platform that is conducive to learning.”

Carey Davis President, Carey Davis Foundation

“There’s competition even in the nonprofit organizations.

in comparison to other nonprofit organizations.”

Jessica Ingraham

“The SEIA took an artist and an educator, and taught me how to start a business, doing everything from learning my customers to researching my competition.”

Matt FoxProgram Manager, Endangered Wolf Center

“What I’m getting out of the SEIA is a sense of community. I’m meet-ing more entreprenuers and what they’re up to. By learning about their ventures, I can help produce a better product.”

Pinkey Johnson

“I’m learning about research, how important research is and be-cause I didn’t know how to do customer research before. But now I know how to do it, and I understand the importance of it.”

Kevin CarterVice President, Programs for Unleashing Potential

“The ability to have the influence of WashU students, faculty, and community members will assist us in closing the opportunity gap in the city of St. Louis.”

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STUDENT PERSPECTIVES“. . . to find such a committed and interest community of students, who engaged consis-tently with the materials in class. Our discus-sions were vibrant. As we built up to our final few weeks in class, we all gave presentations that built on course concepts and asked provocative questions about social ventures and systemic change.”

“My favorite part of the class was when we had real ventures from St. Louis and beyond come in and present to us. We learned real-world examples of our readings, and even got to consult with the businesses on their problems.”

“This semester was the first time in college that I was able to branch out beyond my required business and arts science curriculum.”

Courses Offered

Introduction toSocial Entreprenuership

The course caters to students interested creating positive social change through market based strategies. It is structured to attend to the diversity of back-grounds, and to emulate the interdisciplinary nature of social entrepreneurship. Using existing social enterpris-es as examples, we learn how social entrepreneurs react to social challenges and adapt to overcome new hurdles to create the most impact.

Social Impact: Planning, Measuring, and Building

This course shifts focus towards the intricacies and challenges of impact measurement. The core of it deals with the theory and technical skills related to social impact planning and measurement. It allows students to understand and gauge the hurdles faced by social enterprises as they try to reliably measure their impact. As part of the class students also chose a social enterprise to evaluate as a potential impact investing opportunity.

Business of Social Impact Minor

The minor was created for undergraduate students interested in developing an interdisciplinary view of business. It enables them to leverage this unique perspective to make positive social and environmental differences. It encourages students to explore their desire to positively impact society by giving them the tools to do so. The minor was a student-led initiative and has received immense support from the students and university.

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Social Entreprenuership The Social Entrepreneurship class brings together graduate students from Social Work, Public Health, Business, Law, and Engineering to collaborate and learntogether. While learning about the essentials of social entrepreneurship – the emergence, the challenges, and the opportunities - students work in teams to support community and student projects. They test the feasi-bility of the business models and conduct market research to further develop the venture plans. Past projects have included organizations like Magnificent Creations, a Social Enterprise of Uplifting Potential, and Artscope, a south St. Louis arts organization amongst others.

Social Innovation

Through the Social Innovation class the SEI Lab pairs WashU students with community partners working on the biggest challenges in our region. In Spring 2018, a transdisciplinary seminar of graduate students collaborated with FLOURISH STL, Generate Health, and FOCUS Health Impact fellows to develop disruptive transportation solutions to address racial inequities in infant mortality.

Students in the Introduction to Social Entreprenuership class

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Undergraduate Courses Graduate Courses

Presenters during the Social Innovation Pitch Day

Applied Learning

Mariah ByrneWauson Liang Jimmy ReddyWauson Liang is a sophomore mechanical engineering major. Over the summer he is helping the SEIA research competing university programming with a particular interest in how engineering schools are engaging with social entrepreneurship.

Jimmy Reddy is a junior economics major from North County St. Louis. He’s helping the SEI Lab map out the St. Louis social entrepreneurship ecosystem to inform strategic planning and establish the lab as a thought leader.

Meridith Owen

Meredith (MBA ‘19) worked with the team on operations and marketing for the lab.

At Wash U, Mariah (MSW, MBA ‘20) has served as a practicum student at St. Vincent Home for Children and a Graduate Fellow with the university’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion. Her summer work is focused on research and copy writing for the impact investing paper.

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Exit Investment & Readiness

Social Enterprise System

To inform our strategic plan for upcoming SEIA itera-tions, the lab is researching and documenting the local and national ecosystem. The current project focuses on midwestern cities similar to St. Louis as case studiesfor social entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems. The lab is also conducting interviews with local entrepreneurs, incubators, and key players in the entrepreneurship ecosystem to understand their motivations and unique challenges. The goal of this work is to identify gaps in the St. Louis infrastructure and the support available to social entrepreneurs which will allow the lab to serve as a thought leader and source of research and education for the social entrepreneurship community in St. Louis and beyond.

Impact Investment Paper

The SEI Lab is collaborating with the Missouri Federal Reserve on a white paper report on impact investing, specifically the impact investing landscape in Saint Louis. The goal is to raise awareness of alternative fundraising methods that may be more sustainable as well as alternative methods of philanthropy. The paper profiles Community Development Financial Institutions (CFDIs), foundations, and other players engaged in this work.

Lab staff have met with key partners such as IFF, Justine PETERSEN, The Deaconness Foundation, Franciscan Sisters of Mary, Mercy Investment Services, and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to gather information for case studies. A progress report, which included an overview of steps that institutions and individuals with wealth can take in local impact investing, was delivered at the Impact Investing Symposium hosted by Net Impact at Olin Business School. The paper is targeted to be finished in 2018.

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Destiny Davis

Destiny (MSW, MBA ‘19) is working with Magnificent Creations in marketing, building their branding materials and making a website that streamlines their online ordering process.

Omoluyi Adesanya

Luyi (MPH, MBA ‘20) is interested in social entrepreneurship uncovering innovative solutions to tackle the challenges in global health. She spent the summer in Berlin developing practitioner workshops.

Julia Hughes

Julia Hughes (MPH, MSW ‘19) focuses on international development and health, as well as the intersection of culture and public health outcomes. This summer she worked in Berlin for Dr. Cameron’s Social Enterprise examining mental health outcomes for people with a migration background.

The following are students from WashU working with the SEI Lab on various activities.

Michal Grinstein-WeissAssociate Dean for Policy Initiatives,

Browln Schoo

Gary ParkerAssociate Dean for External Affairs,

Director of the Clark-Fox Policy Institute, Brown School

Heather CameronMichael B. Kaufman Professor of

Practice, Inaugural Academic Director SEIA, Brown School

Board of Members & Staff

Kalin Pearce Community Health

Innovation Manager

Jiayi XuMSW ‘19

Theodore FlorosMPH ‘ 18

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Cliff HolekampSenior Lecturer of Entrepreneurship,

Olin Business School

Steven MalterSenior Associate Dean

of Undergraduate Programs, Olin Business School

Laura TomassiMBA ‘19

Kaitlyn SpragueMSW, MBA ‘20

Shivakshi RanaMarketing & Communications

Manager

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Next Steps

Strengthen transdisciplinary networks and efforts across the WashU Campus o Offer courses across student levels o Host community projects and initiatives that leverage skills and resources across the WashU community o Connect students at the lab with community partners o Partner with career centres at the Business and Social Work schools

Build out the social engagement pipeline by involving o Students, faculty, alumni and leaders at community incubators o Intrapreneurs at community agencies o Local social entrepreneurs from our communities o Corporate entities from the St. Louis region looking to innovate

Grow internal capacity o Provide opportunities for students to gain work experience in the field of social impact o Create collaborative workspaces for students from across campus

Outreach o Rolling out communications efforts to strengthen existing presence while targeting increased national awareness

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